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As Sue Shephard (2000) points out, archaeologists have uncovered the remains of what was evidently a substantial fish-smoking "factory" in Poland, dating back to the seventh century. And it is clear that European use of the technique was greatly expanded, perhaps mainly in order to deal with gluts of herring, in the medieval period. Dedicated smoke houses used for this purpose were in common use in England, and no doubt elsewhere in the fourteenth century. Smoke is highly complex, having a couple of hundred or more constituents....
